Eternity Star
by Hertz
Summary: The land of Albero's always been a fairly quiet and peaceful land until now, some idiots have formed their own Mage guild and things are starting to get out of hand with a new Dark Mage patrolling the streets! OCs, Fairy Tail universe but different land
1. A new Fairy Tail?

Well, my first story, and its probably going to take a while to finish in Chapters, this contains the prologue and the first chapter of the "Tangle Kingdom arc", its also kind of short but the rest are longer. And as a closing statement... Fairy Tail FTW!

_**  
Prologue: A new Fairy Tail?**_

_Reports are rolling in of a new Guild  
in the small nation of Albero, the  
identity of those inside the Guild and  
their activities are mostly a secret  
to the rest of the world but the reports _(photo missing from archive)_  
have simply been rolling in about  
their antics. The Guild, known  
as Eternity Star, is facing severe  
detractors due to the massive amounts  
of property damage coming out of their activities every week. It's even  
been said that they've faced closure from the Council due to their  
behaviour. Sound like anyone else we know? Unfortunately, as we are  
based in Fiore, we cannot seek out this new Guild for an interview  
however, we do implore any members of Eternity Star reading. Come  
to us! Especially if you'd look good in a swimsuit for the front page!_

_--Rewind a few weeks--_

"Man, this train journey is taking forever."  
"Forever? That's completely impossible!"  
"It was a figure of speech, Newton. Come on, make an effort." The muscular man identified as Newton looked momentarily confused before shrugging and sitting back in his seat, his tall frame filling a double bench by himself easily. His dark hair was swept back from his brow and spiked away from his face in all directions, exposing his heavy brow and firm gaze that was fixed staring at a point in the middle-distance. He was wearing a plain grey long sleeved shirt and black trousers tucked into heavy black boots with steel plates welded onto them. The best way to describe him would be exceptionally neat and ASTOUNDINGLY serious.  
His much shorter conversational partner looked wearily out of the window and sighed to himself, they looked pretty close to opposites at the moment. While Newton's hair was dark and quite short, his was light brown, long to the point it was almost to his shoulders, and flicked haphazardly at the ends rather than the organised blown back look that Newton achieved. Instead of plain grey and black, he had a sky blue T-shirt that was loose to a ridiculous extent with a white hood stitched onto the back for no apparent reason and dark green trousers rolled up to around his shins with endless arrays of patches and repairs on them. He had him beat for shoes though, since he didn't have any. He was intending to buy some though. After they got paid for this job.  
"Is Riette going to meet with us at the palace?"  
"Why don't you shout that? I'm not sure everyone heard you."  
"IS RIETTE-"  
"SARCASM! Geez… Yes, Riette's gone on ahead. Can we file that kind of response under 'is being Sarcastic'?"  
"I'll try to remember"  
"Which is a nice way of saying you probably won't, isn't it?"  
"Well, yes… It'd be much easier if you just said what you meant" Newton was confused as he saw his partner slump more in his seat and decided to look at the clock ticking away happily. They were almost certainly going to be late at this rate, although that couldn't be helped. His friend sighed and pulled out the poster again

_Help Needed!__  
My beloved is about to marry another man!  
Please help me win her back! From the Prince of Tangle  
Reward: 1,000,000 J_

"Man, any mission worth that much is BOUND to have a lot of baggage attached." He mused quietly to himself as a blue uniformed girl tottered down the aisles on extremely thin and pointy shoes.  
"Tickets please tickets! Sir? Do you have your ticket?"  
"Huh? Oh yeah sure" Absent-mindedly, the boy rummaged around in the pocket of his shirt and flicked a pale green sheet of card at the woman. She checked it and cleared her throat loudly, he looked up again  
"Sir? Do you honestly expect me to believe your name is Hertz Carbine?"  
"Ohhhh, this is going to be a looong day" Hertz sighed, knocking his head against the window. The train sped on towards its goal, the blazing orange fire of the sun illuminating the sparkling oceans as it washed against the sheer rock face, the winding mass of train-tracks spiralling ever upwards, climbing the mountain towards the jungle kingdom of Tangle.

**Chapter 1: Albero's own Guild? Eternity Star's first mission!**

**  
** The marble pathway stretched along the short and meticulously trimmed garden lawn, the tiles were all polished to the point of shining. The entire area looked like it belonged in some paradise where people who had been particularly good and virtuous would go at the end of their long lives. It was for this reason that Hertz felt more than a little out of place in his bare feet, he was just grateful that a car had taken them from the train station. He felt that if he'd left large muddy foot-prints on the tiles they would have faced some more severe problems than just casual appearance.

Newton simply stood with his arms folded at Hertz side, despite being much larger and having a great physical presence that denoted authority, he'd been told that Riette was the leader on this mission and as such he would only take action if commanded to and told it was part of the mission, he wouldn't have even boarded the train if it hadn't been a direct order to USE the train. Hertz sighed, Newton wasn't normally like this, when they were at the guild he was quiet but at least he could act for himself and use his initiative. But on missions he was just… incredibly focused. It worked for the Guild Master, less for Hertz' need for conversation, in fact, he often wondered precisely _why _Newton followed orders so exactly. But that problem could be saved for another time.

"Alright… let's go and meet the Prince shall we?" Hertz grinned and flipped a thumbs up to his friend.  
"No. We need to meet with Riette." Newton replied firmly not even acknowledging the thumb. Hertz' shoulders sagged visibly and he rubbed his eyes with his palms.  
"She's… with the Prince?" Hertz decided to at least give it a shot, he seemed to believe everything else he said was intended as a true statement. Newton looked down to examine Hertz' face carefully. It held all the honesty and conviction of someone covered in blood claiming he had nothing to do with the murder. After being asked what the time was.  
"Riette said she would meet us here. I see no reason to seek her out"  
"Arrrrghh! Newton, come on man! Granny Semeti might not even be here yet!"  
"_Granny_ Semeti?" inquired a voice that sounded like it had about as much forgiveness as a blizzard. Hertz yelped and twirled on the spot, accidentally snapping his hand into a salute as he did so and looking firmly at a point in the middle distance, Newton simply retained his original position and the two nearly matched. "Good work Newton, I'd like you to proceed to the first room on the left after you pass the main doors, we'll meet you there in a minute"  
"Right. I'll leave you two alone" Newton smiled slightly maliciously  
"Newton… have mercy man!" Hertz implored as his comfortingly huge friend walked firmly and determinedly down the marble path. With a sinking feeling of terror he turned to face Riette.

She had dark green hair in a curly mane, purple eye-shadow over her eyes and a rich violet lip-stick on that made her look both attractive, yet too good for anyone to hit on. She was wearing a white coat complete with multiple pockets for stashing items and a thin red vest beneath it, she adjusted her stance and her tight leather trousers squeaked with the movement. She looked around thirty, and a good 14 odd years older than Newton and Hertz, explaining why she was the leader this time around.  
"Well? Are you going to explain yourself"  
"… I'm not one hundred percent certain that I can" Hertz replied honestly, he'd learnt long ago that honesty was the best policy in these situations.  
"Hertz, you have to be serious, this is very important! It's the first real mission our Guilds ever under-taken, do you understand that?"  
"Yes…"  
"Good. Look, you're sensible. Most of the time, except when you're trying to play a prank or make a joke. And you're a good Mage, one of the best in our, admittedly small, Guild. Could you please just try to make sure this goes off without a hitch?"  
"Alright, alright" Hertz held his hands up with an exasperated sigh, "For you, alright? And the old man, I know I owe the both of you." He grinned and held a hand out to her, his elbow bent into a V, Riette returned his smile and grasped it firmly. Without a word they turned and began walking towards the palace. About halfway to the door Hertz finally thought it safe to ask  
"So, I take it we aren't encouraged to steal things from his house?"  
"You are not"  
"Right, OK, just checking"

As far as waiting rooms go, this one was pretty far up the (extremely short) list of Hertz' favourites. The entire room was deep scarlet and every surface he could find was quilted and soft to the touch, the carpet, the chairs and even the bench in the small alcove that looked out onto the garden. After some debate, he'd opted for sitting next to Newton on a double sofa and sunk half of the way into it from the sheer comfort. He let out a small contented sigh as Riette examined the walls. Rather than exposing the actual wall, red silk scarves were pinned over every single one disguising the colour beneath. She frowned slightly, that was an odd thing to do, given if he disliked the colour he could just have it painted. It gave the impression that he had something to hide… She was glad now she'd decided to accompany the two on this outing; she leant against the arm of the chair where Hertz was quickly succumbing to the joys of cushions when there was the noise of a door handle turning.

Without missing a beat she got to her feet, indicated for Newton to follow suite, and both of them grabbed Hertz' shirt as they stood so he was pulled bodily to his feet. The effect was when the Prince's attendant opened the door he saw two mages standing perfectly upright and one looking slightly dishevelled and a little irked. He cleared his throat gently into a single white gloved hand and announced in a deep rumbling voice,  
"His royal Highness, Prince Roth of Tangle"

It's impossible to go into any social situation without a few preconceptions in your mind. However, to their credit, despite the fact the Prince looked nothing like what any of them had been expecting, they barely even reacted. Well… Riette may have recoiled in shock… and Newton might have hissed and winced… and Hertz sort of screamed a little bit, but compared to what they'd been expecting he WAS very different.

The Prince appeared to look very similar to your average 40 something year old office worker, balding with some strange style of moustache coming in that looked like he was aiming to take over several countries. His clothes were the usual raiment of a member of royalty, but the crown appeared to be slightly too big and hung around his neck like a collar. There was nothing exact about his face, maybe it was the half closed eyes, the overly large nose, or even the constantly down-turned mouth, but there was something about it that just made you feel uncomfortable to look at him. Riette suddenly had a very acute inkling that this mission was going to quickly turn into a mountain of falsehoods…

"Errr… your highness, we're here about your Guild request. I am Riette Semeti, this is Newton and… Hertz Carbine" She glared at the gawking Hertz and he hastily took a few steps back and waved jocularly at the Prince. The Prince tried to look happy about them being there but seemed to have some issues with getting his face to mimic the movements properly "We, ahhhh, we just need to ask for some more details… like, where this new wedding is taking place?"  
"Oh?" the Prince squeaked in a hilariously improbable high pitched voice  
"Oh come on now!" Hertz managed to get out before Newton clamped a hand down firmly and smiled at the Prince, waving to encourage him to continue. The Prince cleared his throat and his voice suddenly dropped down several tones.  
"Well, I don't actually know… it's why I can't go and tell my beloved I want her back, it's almost heart-breaking. All I know is that it should be in a village deep into the jungle" the Prince looked sheepishly at his feet, Riette tried to restrain any alarmed feelings she was currently holding and smiled as best she could.  
"That'll be fine, well, if you give us the name of the village we'll just be going"  
"Oh nonsense, I'm going to be coming too, a little stroll through the wilderness will do me the world of good" The Prince announced in a baritone, so deep that even Newton released his grip so both he and Hertz could stare open-mouthed in joint awe at the idea of this 40 something year old man journeying into the jungle, and his rapidly scaling vocal structure. Riette clearly wanted to protest but the Prince waved his hand as if waving away a fly and tottered his way to the front door to arrange more transportation. Before he left he turned to face the speechless face of Riette

"By the way, which Guild are you from?" when it was clear Riette was too baffled to say anything, Hertz stepped in.  
"We're Eternity Star" Hertz mumbled, still looking shell-shocked like his friends "bringing you magical service with… with a great big smile"  
"Oh, that's a nice slogan. Reminds me of when I was a lad" The Prince wandered away leaving three Mages just realising that they're mission was suddenly turning from 'Find and talk to a woman' to 'Bodyguard a Prince from assassinations WHILST trying to find and talk to a woman, in the middle of a Jungle'. Hertz sighed  
"This is definitely going to be a long day…"

Feedback is always welcome, as long as it's fairly constructive.


	2. Always be aware of your surroundings

**Chapter 2: Always , always ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings.  
**

**  
** For some reason, the Prince's rapidly altering voice was actually starting to bother all three mages less and less. Although he was still pretty bad to look at, his voice shifting from Falsetto to Baritone was starting to grow on them, since it was actually fairly predictable and just made conversations a strange sort of scales. They started to find it almost entertaining, Hertz was a massive fan.  
"It's awesome! You don't often meet someone with a Sonic inclination, you think he's a mage too?" Hertz asked as they washed some of the Prince's many clothes in a clear stream by the side of the sandy trail they were following.  
"He could be" Newton reasoned "Several royal families rose to power because they could use magic. But why would it make his voice oscillate like that?"  
"I dunno… It's still pretty cool, Roth's the only guy I know who can imitate a man and a woman in the same sentence" Hertz sniggered under his breath at the idea and Newton rolled his eyes.

The Prince had never done said deed, but it was most likely a joke of some kind. He would never understand his friends great love of humour, he always thought that it had a time and a place, but Hertz disagreed that the time was always now and the place was everywhere on the planet. Thankfully, the Prince had a good sense of humour and didn't object to Hertz using his first name.  
"Hey! Are you two done yet?" Riette called from their camp-site, the tone of her voice implied she was rapidly growing tired of having to try to entertain the prince  
"Almost, we'll be there soon" Newton called back, quickly scooping up the wet clothes and grumbling under his breath "I almost wish we had a Fire Mage with us, it'd make drying easier"  
"Heh, I like our Magic. It's like, absolutely NO-ONE sees it coming when we use it"  
"That's completely erroneous, several people know our Magic…" Newton sighed, Hertz always used these strange statements that were clearly hyperbole. Sometimes they made no sense at all! Riette said they were often metaphors or jokes, but Newton didn't understand them at all. He gathered up all the clothes he had been washing and ignored Hertz' protestations that he was exaggerating for effect, deciding to walk the few feet back to the site on his own, for some peace and quiet.

They'd set up camp in the middle of a large clearing, the huge waxy green leaves of the surrounding trees offering shade from the blazing sun. Vines were tangled around the perimeter of the clearing but Riette had taken care of any dangerous one, leaving a few with golden flowers to add colour to the area. A single fire blazed and crackled in the centre of the clearing, another occasion when Newton had lamented the lack of Fire Mages in their party. Four tents were set up to one side, three small blue ones flanking one cream coloured enormous tent. Guess who slept where?  
Riette currently had several glass beakers set out around her as she toyed with various liquids and fluids that she'd brought with her, several vials full of a green liquid and three filled with an orange one lay untouched at her side. She'd long dispensed with the lab-coat for heat issues and was simply wearing the fluttery red vest that normally appeared modest when coupled with the coat. Unfortunately, without it, it gave an entirely different impression, one that the Prince was admiring with ill-concealed lust.  
"You'd think since we're going to save his 'beloved' he'd keep his eyes to himself" Riette muttered savagely to Newton as he sat down. When she'd told Newton and Hertz the other day, they agreed that rocking the boat and talking to him about it was a bad idea. Well, Newton and she had agreed.

"Yo! Old-timer, you eyeing up my boss again?" Hertz asked cheerfully as he dropped the sodden clothes near the fire to dry. The Prince looked flustered and said how he would never do that in tones that varied from small girl to enormous warrior. Hertz grinned like a loon until he noticed the dark gaze of Riette and Newton and immediately apologised saying it was a joke. After seeing the gaze continuing he added an _extremely BAD _joke. And after a third look simply announced he was going to retire to his tent for the evening before he got murdered.

Newton shook his head sadly as Riette apologised to the Prince for Hertz' bad manners but the Prince insisted it was only a joke and he wasn't offended in the slightest. Newton frowned as he tried to think why the Prince would be so obsessed with reclaiming this woman… Riette had said she expected foul-play but he couldn't imagine it, which was also one of the reasons why he was apparently paired with Hertz most frequently. Although their respective Magic weren't particularly compatible, they seemed to make up for the others problems. Like, Hertz' inability to take things most seriously was made up for by Newton's inability to _not_ take most things seriously.

The Prince announced that he wished to retire and Riette agreed it seemed like a good idea  
"Newton! We'd best get some sleep, we're starting early tomorrow"  
"Should we keep a watch?" Newton asked  
"The Prince has no real enemies, I think it'd be safest if we just kept ourselves alert tomorrow. We probably face more dangers from Animals than from enemy Mages"  
"Right, I'll extinguish the fire and go to my tent then." Riette nodded to him as she helped the Prince to properly open his door before slipping into her own much smaller and draughtier tent.  
Newton splashed some water from the stream onto the fire and paused when he heard a scrabbling sound. Riette had guaranteed that any animals would be keeping away… it could be anything. Unfortunately, as Newton was following a mission, rather than investigating like any sane person would, he followed Riette's orders and went to his tent to rest without even a backward glance. He kept an ear open however, just in case… eventually sleep claimed him and the shadows surrounding the camp slowly shifted as the night grew darker.

Hertz was roused from his sleep by an uneasy sensation near the bottom of his stomach, he sat up and wondered what it was when he suddenly and awkwardly realised.  
"I gotta go! I gotta go!" He whispered desperately as he scrambled through his tents flap, only bothering with pulling on his trousers and not his shirt. After a short sprint, he unzipped rapidly and relieved himself against the nearest convenient tree. He sighed and looked back to the camp site with a blissful glint in his eye. Only to see the Prince being bundled off by a group of about four people. His face fell in shock and he immediately tried to run but found he was helplessly caught in the stream of urine… there was no way he could move while he was pissing!  
"Oh come on, hurry, hurry, hurry!" Hertz shouted as he tried to speed himself up, he just about finished in time to hear them starting a vehicle. "No way! We couldn't find anything that would work here, how did they...?" Hertz decided now wasn't the time for thinking, he quickly zipped up and started sprinting in the direction he'd seen them heading. They clearly hadn't seen him since they were surprised to see this half naked boy suddenly sprinting at them and shouting various obscenities relating to them and their mothers.

"Kopi! Get the Magic Vehicle going." The magic vehicle he was referring to looked like a carriage without the horses. Hertz had seen them before but he'd never driven one, they looked dangerous… but there was no time to stop. This one had reinforced wheels but more importantly an open top and the Prince was clearly visible inside struggling against his ropes  
"Don't worry Old Timer!" Hertz shouted as he neared the vehicle "I'll be with you in a second!" He grinned as he was about to reach the Prince… and was suddenly grabbing at air as the vehicle shot off as fast as a train "Whaaaaa!?" Hertz swore and started sprinting again, the vehicle had to negotiate tricky terrain so it was slowed down enough that he could at least keep pace, leaping and bounding over roots (and one enormous snake which seemed oblivious to the chase going on around it), but he couldn't gain the ground fast enough.  
"That kids not going away, Sochi" shouted a voice on the vehicle. Hertz felt quite pleased they were at least aware he was after them  
"Ahhh who cares, even if he catches up he looks like a coward, bet he'll just run at the first chance"

A vein twitched in Hertz fore-head

"Say what!?" There was a flash of purple light under his bare feet and with a sudden explosion of speed Hertz leapt and shot through the air. He landed with a crash on the back of the vehicle, just besides the bound and gagged Prince and glared angrily at the one who'd announced that last sentence. He stalked across the moving vehicle and prodded him firmly in the chest, panting to regain his breath  
"I (pant) do NOT (pant) look like a Coward!" He bent double for a second and held a single finger up to announce a time-out before straightening up and surprising the unfortunate commenter with a round-house kick to the mid-section. The victim of this unexpected assault grabbed his stomach and coughed, he stared at Hertz in outrage  
"Hey! I respected you catching breath!"  
"And you kidnapped the Prince! You don't get the benefit of a fair fight" Hertz attempted to throw a punch and was intercepted by a large rock that smashed into his hand. "OWW!! Damnit, that hurt!"

"You're serving scum like him" Said a deep and melodic voice from the front of the car, a figure dressed in only a pair of beige trousers and a silver amulet on a chain stepped forward, his shaved head glinted in the moonlight and his toned body (much better shape than Hertz') rippled like a caged animal "You don't deserve the benefit of a fair fight either"  
"Thanks Sochi" muttered the grateful man who was still suffering from the kick; the kid hit hard for a Mage. And didn't seem to have the same sense of honour he thought of when he imagined someone who used magic. Hertz glared at the identified Sochi and cracked his knuckles  
"I take it you're the leader?"  
"Of the four of us, I am" Sochi said stiffly, Hertz grinned broadly at this and raised his fists to shoulder height in a fighting stance  
"Good! Then all I have to do is kick _your_ ass and the rest'll probably give up" Hertz dived for Sochi and was surprised when he was hit in the side by a rock. He gasped for air as he sailed sideways and his opponent smiled ominously, his eyes closed  
"Hmmph, you have no idea of my power" Sochi murmured. He was surprised when he felt himself moving and realised, far too late, that Hertz had grabbed his amulet and both of them were now being pulled by the force of the stone off the Magic Vehicle. They hit the ground with a bump and both fighters tumbled over each other and ended up on another trail, this one mostly made of brown dirt and rocks rather than sand. Hertz groaned as he got to his feet and saw Sochi chuckling under his breath  
"What's so funny?" Hertz asked, wincing as he rubbed a bruise on the side of his face  
"You… you would have had a better chance back on the truck" Sochi smiled as the earth around them rumbled  
"An Earthquake? What the… oh crap" Hertz suddenly realised exactly what this meant and turned to see stones levitating around Sochi in rolling patterns.  
"Yes, I use Stone Magic. I have more than enough raw materials here to fight an army of lesser mages" Sochi held a hand out and smiled, Hertz got ready to move. He'd have to beat this Sochi guy and find out where they were headed or they would never find the Prince.

The speeding Vehicle was filled with laughing people as they careened around tree-roots and other obstacles, a chimp had to leap for a branch as they barrelled through his usual play area. If Sochi was taking care of that brat they'd not have to worry about anything, the driver, Kopi was getting concerned though. The handling on the Vehicle was starting to get more awkward, it was slowing down a lot, he applied more energy but they were still going too slow. It wasn't until he saw two people in front of them on the road and the tires sunk into the soil that he realised it was an attack  
"Everyone! We're under attack! Quick, get the Prince and-"  
"Newton? Could you take care of those three while I help the Prince?"  
"Alright then" Kopi felt himself starting to float and was surprised when he and his friends were pulled from the care and hurled simultaneously into a tree with enough force that they all stuck. There were some complaints and whines from the stuck kidnappers as Riette untied the Prince, she heard him splutter for a second before he announced the important news  
"Hertz is fighting their leader! The leader can use Magic!"  
"What kind of magic, your highness?" Riette asked hastily.  
"I think it looked like Stone Magic."  
"Stone?" Riette smiled a little "Oh that should be fine, I think Hertz will do quite well enough against a Stone Magic user"

The stones surrounding Sochi rocketed forward, spinning over and over in the air as they streaked towards their target. Hertz was hard-pressed to keep himself free from injuries, let alone counter-attacking. He swerved backwards as a sharpened spearhead piece of flint skimmed past his stomach, continuing the motion he flipped backwards so his legs avoided a large sheet of sand-stone and landed awkwardly on the balls of his feet, before he even acknowledged what was happening, he did a forward flip on instinct and the ground where he had been standing erupted in a shower or pebbles.

He landed on his knees rather than feet and had to pause for a breath, looking at Sochi with blazing eyes. Determination shined forth and the Stone Mage was momentarily taken aback, he had misjudged this one. They'd been at this for almost ten minutes, he would attack and the boy would dodge. His attitude had made Sochi believe it would be easy to beat him, but this determination was starting to make him more and more concerned. The eyes staring at him now were not the eyes of a coward.  
"Hey, can you control sand?" Hertz asked, unexpectedly. Sochi was hesitant to reply but reasoned that showing concern would give his enemy the psychological advantage  
"No, unfortunately, Sand requires much smaller control. I was never taught it"  
"Heheh, wow, this about to get a whole lot more one sided" Hertz grinned broadly. Without warning, he kicked off the ground with that same burst of purple light and started sprinting at Sochi, Sochi summoned stones to intercept but Hertz avoided them easily with swerves and rolls, maintaining his momentum. He'd gotten used to his pattern of attack far too quickly! Sochi stopped the attack and summoned rocks around him instead, moulding it into a thick suit of stone armour  
"Do what you like, I saw earlier, you can't punch through Stone!"  
"You're sorta right" Hertz grinned as he approached, rings of purple were beginning to emanate from his hand and Sochi was aware of a noise coming from the approaching figure. He looked alarmed and shouted out  
"Stone Spears!" Long shafts of flint prised their ways free of the ground and catapulted into the air, ready to rush down on Hertz… but found themselves too late.  
Hertz stopped about two feet short of Sochi, his legs bent and his stance low, and with a loud roar of  
"KOORRAAAHH!!" struck with his fist sideways dead in the centre of Sochi's armour, his whole body behind the blow. It appeared that his hand had done nothing and Sochi was tempted to laugh that he'd gotten so worried. Until he felt himself shaking. It felt like everything inside the armour, its very molecules, were being rapidly thrown around.

Without any sign of warning, the stone armour exploded into tiny pieces of shrapnel around the size of a grain of sand, blasting the area in a 20 foot radius. The dust cloud rose up and the flint spears missed their target due to Sochi's broken concentration, the Stone Mage himself was unconscious, the shock of the explosion had blasted him with sand at high speeds knocking him out. Hertz had his front completely covered with sand and was lying on his back, groaning softly to himself.  
"OK, I have to remember not to do that at close range again…" He sat up just as the vehicle he'd seen earlier pulled back into view, this time being driven expertly by Riette. It pulled up to a halt next to him and the sleeping Sochi. He waved to his team-mates and got up, dusting himself off as best he could  
"You seem to have handled yourself OK" Newton smiled as he walked over to check that Sochi was _only_ unconscious.  
"Yeah, It got messy for a while because I didn't know his ability. Thankfully, he didn't know mine either so I kinda kicked his butt. I'm still pretty stiff though" Hertz complained, Riette got out of the driver's seat and threw Hertz' shirt to him.  
"We need to get moving, no time for a wash here. If we drive through the night we can be at the village by nightfall"  
"Awww man… hey, Roth, any idea why those guys were after you?" Hertz asked as he pulled on his shirt and flapped it so it hung off his shoulders to his satisfaction.  
"Ohhh, I might have some idea… but it should be unthinkable" the Prince squeaked  
"Well? If it's unthinkable there's a good chance it could be the case" Riette said, Hertz quickly patted Newton on the shoulder before he could comment on this choice of phrasing.  
"Well, they look like the people from the village we're heading towards… but this Amulet reminds me of someone. The man who my beloved is going to marry…"  
"Who? Some simple village chief that doesn't want you interfering"  
"Oh not all, this Amulet is something that my brother puts on people who're serving under him."  
"Oh… wait, your brother?!" Hertz shouted, suddenly aware of what they'd heard  
"Yes, my brother" the Prince rumbled (changing to his deep voice), as he checked his jacket for a picture "Here, this is what he looks like"  
The man in the photo had long dark hair, a perfectly shaped nose, wide dark eyes and a thin beard over his chin. What's more, he was also incredibly handsome. Riette looked to the Prince with as much sympathy as she could manage  
"Errr, your highness… with all due respect, might your beloved be marrying your brother of her own free-will?"  
"Oh… she could be, but I'm unsure since he uses Charm on young girls a lot… he already had 6 women betrothed to him before he was thrown out." The Prince stated as if reporting century old news.

"Hmmmm, so your better looking younger brother has used charm on your beloved and taken her to this village to marry her… Alright!" Hertz grinned "There ought to be plenty more mages where these guys came from! So, all we have to do is take out everyone wearing an Amulet and beat your brother up so he breaks the spell, right?"  
"I should think so…"  
"Right! Let's go guys!" Hertz leapt into the back of the magical vehicle and hopped up and down trying to encourage the others to hurry up. Riette rolled her eyes and looked for Newton, only to see he was already back in the truck with Hertz (although not jumping up and down).  
"We'll still help you, your highness. After all, a million jewels is rather a lot. Is there anything else you need to tell us?" Riette arched an eyebrow expectedly but the Prince simply walked straight past her, his nose pointed into the air. After a moment's thought, Riette followed, but she was resolved to keep an eye on this Prince now… there was something extremely fishy about this mission.

There, that one's a bit more interesting, Reviews and Feedback are welcome as well as any predictions on the Mages specialities.


	3. Anyone want a Hertz Doughnut?

The newest Chapter! This might need heavy editting later on, in fact a lot of the story might need an extra proof-check but this will hopefully make sense of a few details that might be bugging anyone who's read the previous chapters with an inquisitive mind. It also features Newton doing what he does best...  
(shout out to Sir Gar the Bold for mentioning me in his new chapter of the Black Glove Pirates, glad you approve the pseudonym)

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**Chapter 3: Anyone want a Hertz Doughnut?  
**

**  
** Huddled together in the back of the magic vehicle, Hertz and Newton were secretly praying that Riette might consider slowing down a little as they blasted through the jungle on rocking wheels and a severely shaking frame. She was determined to get them to a village so they could find somewhere safe and less exposed to stay, despite Hertz' protestations that since the attackers had come from a village he didn't believe that running _towards _it meant they would be going towards safety, rather the rest of the enemies.  
This didn't mean he opposed the idea of finding the enemies and finishing the mission as fast as possible, but sleeping on the back of a truck with scratchy dirt and sand under your shirt is not the easiest thing in the world. If they arrived and were all still as tired as they were now, things would just get worse.

He groaned as they hit another root and he was inadvertently thrown into the air, he landed on his shoulder-blades with a loud crunching sound, and after twitching for a while rolled onto his side painfully. Newton was sitting perfectly steady and looked at him curiously, unsure why Hertz looked quite so discomforted. The ride was certainly concerning for him since he didn't know if the vehicle would be too badly damaged to continue leaving them stranded far from a safe trail. Hertz was concerned that they were going to get killed…

"You could at least share!" Hertz shouted to the stationary Newton, his friend looked confused by this outburst  
"What do you mean?"  
"What do you mean what do I mean, I'm talking about-" whatever Hertz had been intending to say was cut off by Riette sharply braking and his being catapulted into the front with her and the Prince. Thankfully, both of them had anticipated this and left enough room for him to fly between them and into the sheet of glass intended to protect against the wind.  
It wasn't very strong glass.  
Hertz went straight through and landed on the grass, in a rolling heap, just outside of what looked like a small town.

Contrary to what he'd been expecting, Hertz was quite surprised to see that it looked like a normal town, wooden houses and thatched roofs in a style pretty similar to the ones near the palace. The wooden poles surrounding the village were a bleached yellow colour and the tops were slanted spikes. The centre of the village had a large marble statue showing a man reaching to the sky with a sword, a few insomniac villagers had paused to stare at him curiously which just made Hertz more concerned that they'd made a fairly serious mistake somewhere along the line and ended up at the wrong village. Or the right village depending on what you were aiming to achieve…

Newton ambled up to stand besides Hertz and stroked his chin as he considered what would be the best course of action. Riette was soon standing on the other side of Hertz and examining a sign that gave details of the village. The Prince stood behind him and looked at the prone Hertz with a look of mild curiosity  
"Should we, ummm, help him up?" The Prince asked after a few minutes of silence  
"YES!" Hertz bellowed. Newton grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him upwards in one swift movement, leaving him to dangle in the air for a moment before dropping him to his feet. Hertz grumbled as he adjusted his shirt again, Riette finally sighed, satisfied by what the sign said  
"Alright, this place isn't the village we were heading for, it's a neighbour though. If we're lucky we can rest here and surprise them tomorrow"  
"And if we're unlucky?" Newton asked, his inflection betraying no hint of an emotion.  
"They'll see the vehicle and slaughter us in our sleep"  
"That's way too unlucky! Can't we destroy the vehicle?" Hertz pleaded as flashes of an assassin slitting his throat in the dark filled his imagination.  
"No, we'll need it tomorrow. You're welcome to stand guard if you want"  
"What!? I did all the fighting today!"  
"You can't tell me you were tired from that, he must have been quite a weak mage"  
"Like hell! He managed to make armour and javelins, that's not low level magic for a Stone Mage" Hertz shouted, looking more irritated than genuinely upset. The villagers were looking at the group curiously now, the Prince set forth and began communicating to the villagers in an odd series of clicks and whistles.

Riette stared at Hertz with a look of extreme concern  
"He was proficient? There aren't supposed to be any mages at all in Tangle"  
"Huh?" Hertz looked confused "This guy was pretty good at Stone Magic, he wasn't some self-taught amateur, he even mentioned he was taught what he knew. I was mostly lucky my magic was well suited for fighting it, I think you might have been in a fair deal of trouble Riette" Hertz was being fairly candid but not entirely unfair, Riette conceded. She was quite a powerful mage but she wasn't very well suited to combat with other mages, her main area of expertise was support after all.  
"Alright, I'll guard the Prince, Newton find a inn and Hertz try and gather some intelligence about the village"  
"Understood" Newton bowed slightly before walking deep into the village with his goal clearly set in mind. Hertz sighed and waved half-heartedly to Riette as he mooched off after Newton to try and complete his orders, although he wasn't planning on being punctual. Riette sighed and rubbed her temples, this whole mission was odd. Tangle wasn't supposed to have any Mages, but that man was clearly a local. The Prince was hiding something… what was going on? As a matter of fact… she hadn't seen a single picture of the Prince's alleged love. Wouldn't that be helpful if he wanted them to find her? He had one of his brother in his wallet (did a Prince NEED a wallet? What could he possibly need to spend money buying?) and… something was definitely wrong. She'd re-donned her coat for the convenience of having the test-tubes close to her and saw the laughing crowd of enraptured locals staring at the Prince with love-struck eyes.  
Yes… there was something odd here. And she was going to find out what.

/--\\\\\\

Now, Newton's big problem (possibly his greatest) was that he couldn't differentiate between someone using a metaphor or euphemism and when they were asking for a literal action, and as such he tended to assume that every figure of speech, no matter how obscure or impossible was someone's honest and literal request or command. His attempts at finding an inn would probably be a good example of this  
"Greetings sir!" the elderly man boomed, his large belly jiggling with mirth  
"Hello, I'd like two rooms with two beds in each please"  
"Of course sir, of course. Have you brought a lady friend with you?" his eyes twinkled mischievously  
"Yes, my superior in our Guild. I don't know if I'd call her a friend as much a mother figure"  
"Errr, I see… well, we don't have many vacancies we're cramming them into rooms as it is"  
"You're _what_?" Newton asked, aghast "that is incredibly dangerous!"  
"Oh, not literally sir"  
"Ahhh, I see" Newton responded, mentally damning the man for his inability to talk straight, it was worse than Hertz.  
"Anyway, if you want a nice room you may need to, uhhh, grease some palms as it were" the old man grinned and held a palm out. Newton frowned at him, looking completely bewildered, finally he shook his head and shrugged  
"Can you give me a second?"  
"Of course sir" Newton left for a moment and the inn-keeper began writing down a reservation for 'A big foreigner' and was surprised when he felt something slippery and unpleasant smack into his still extended hand "What the hell is this!?"  
"Grease. Like you asked"  
"I didn't ask for-"  
"You asked me to grease your palm!" Newton shouted, a little upset that this was being thrown back in his face. It wasn't exactly easy to find grease in a new town "So give me the room keys"  
The inn-keeper thought for a moment and deduced that a large insane man who slapped grease in your hand would probably not be the kind of man you want to offend. He reached behind the counter and fished out two different keys, he threw them at Newton who thanked him kindly and left. The inn-keeper shook his head tragically  
"I'm too old for this… I think I might retire, the youth of today are just too weird…"

/--\\\\\\\\\\

The village was eerily quiet, the few people who had been around were all centred around the Prince, they seemed pretty interested in hearing about him. Hertz supposed that royalty did that to someone, not to mention that crazy voice normally made him fairly entertaining to listen to. Still, didn't explain why EVERYONE was crowding around him. Maybe that was just the effect royalty had on people, no matter how weirdly ugly they were.  
Hertz ended up wandering through the village, most houses had their windows closed and shuttered, it felt oddly empty. The ground was paved with an uneven kind of stone that was particularly uncomfortable on his bare-feet when compared to the loose dirt he was used to, he sighed as he took a step and suddenly yelped in surprise. Something silvery and sharp was jutting out of the space between stones. Hertz frowned as he squatted down to examine it, he couldn't discern very much at all about it. He tugged on the small piece of metal that was poking free, it easily came loose, and after some scrabbling he held it loosely in his open palm. It was an amulet on a fine chain, almost identical to the one that Sochi had been wearing. Hertz cried out in surprise and threw it away as he fell backwards onto his rear. The silvery metal shape bounced once off the cobbles and was caught by a mysterious figure standing at the end of the path, their features hidden by the shade of a building.

"Ahhh, you've found my lucky charm" the voice stated, it sounded female and more than a little unbalanced, there was a faint purr like quality to it. Hertz rolled backwards and into a crouched position, his eyes glaring forwards to the darkness where she stood.  
"Who are you… what do you want?"  
"I seek the Prince, I have a message for him." Her voice was dripping with so much sarcasm that Hertz doubted even Newton would miss the hint  
"I get it, I get it, you're an assassin big whup"  
"An assassin? Why, what makes you believe we want the Prince dead?" She asked sweetly, batting her eyelids to try and distract him. Hertz paused at the comment, it was a good point. What _did_ they want him for? They were kidnapping him earlier, if the Prince's brother wanted him out of the way he would've just had him killed. Did charm have its limits or…  
"What's going on here!? What's Roth even done?"  
"Roth?" the woman's voice sounded genuinely confused "You… you call the Prince by his birth-name?"  
"Ummm, yeah, why wouldn't I?" Hertz could only listen to the accelerated breathing of the woman in the shadows "What's wrong with you?"  
"Only a truly powerful mage… one as strong as the Master… I cannot beat you."  
"Well, not with that attitude" Hertz replied, folding his arms. They were being quite loud, but the villagers weren't waking up… or rather, they weren't interfering. Hertz wasn't naïve enough to confuse the two. "Why can't a powerful mage call him by his first name? All he does is talk in a weird oscillating way"  
"You can hear the Charm! Oh my Master, I am doomed!"  
"Charm? What do you…"

"_Oh… she could be, but I'm unsure since he uses Charm on young girls a lot… he already had 6 women betrothed to him before he was thrown out."_

"Ohhh, Roth…" Hertz sighed as everything finally clicked, he had a fairly sound idea why people were after the Prince. "Roth uses Charm too, through his voice. Which is why I'm least effected of the three of us… damnit all…" Hertz sighed, he felt more than a little betrayed by all of this, but as everything was starting to make sense he had to confirm something "So, you don't work for his brother?"  
"I serve only the Master! I would not serve a monster such as he!" The woman snarled, for some reason taking exception to Hertz' perfectly valid question, her hand moved from the patch of darkness and showed long blackened claws that glinted in the half light. Hertz gulped involuntarily, now would _not_ be the time to reveal why he was immune to Roth's charm, if she thought he was some kind astonishing Mage of great prowess he saw absolutely no reason to enlighten her.  
"OK, OK, I get it… so Roth and his brother have some kind of plan that requires having some fairly powerful mages looking to make a Million Jewels. And you want the Prince, why?"  
"I will not answer you, you who serve the monster!"  
"Look, I'm pretty close to handing in my resignation, girl" Hertz replied, starting to lose his temper  
"Not to mention, I'm strong enough to break his Charm" Hertz reminded her, gambling on it working. Unfortunately, the woman seemed to have paused and had something of a realisation  
"You do not have the air of someone who is strong… Of course, you must possess it, that magic!" The woman concluded with a hiss and a yowl her claw slashing through the air in rage.

"Aww Crap!" Hertz quickly tensed his fists and got ready for the attack, the woman was faster than Hertz had even begun to think. She screeched forward and Hertz had just enough time to notice she had long blonde hair and what looked like fangs before he was hit square in the jaw by an out-stretched boot, he was lifted off the ground and he tumbled backwards, helpless in mid-air. His hand began to glow with the same purple rings as before and the same humming noise filled the air. The woman appeared under him in a blur, her eyes flashing with a wild hatred, Hertz struck down but missed as she swerved gracefully away. The ground under Hertz' hand exploded outwards in a shower of dust, the woman held her breath and cleared some room but Hertz hadn't anticipated himself missing. He hacked and coughed trying to catch some air and was slashed unawares through the back of his shirt. Pain surged through him in a blast of current, he tried to scream but his mouth couldn't open. His limbs felt dead, without any feeling they soon caved under him and he collapsed into the newly made crater.  
"Paralysis Nails" the woman hissed, "And now to finish you off…"

"My my, you are a violent little kitty" a voice murmured, the words carrying over the breeze, judging from her face the woman was clearly terrified by the sound. She turned to face someone on the other side of Hertz paralysed body and dived at him, howling like a wild tiger. Hertz wanted to move his head to see what was happening, but he couldn't move it an inch. All he could hear was the woman screeching and what sounded like a fight taking place, the scratch of wood against nail was like… well, nails on a chalkboard. Probably not all that surprising, they are fairly similar things. Hertz heard a yowl and some whispered words followed by a loud snap and the sound of meat hitting the ground. Then there were foot-steps, echoing in the empty street, as they began walking towards Hertz paralysed body.  
_"Crap, Crap, Crap CRAP! Come on, move. MOVE!_" Hertz forced all his will into moving, a slight twitch of his index finger was all he could manage before the mysterious new arrival was looking down at him. He had long dark hair, a perfect nose and eyes the same colour as someone Hertz was very familiar with  
"Ahhh, the first of the three new additions to our family"  
The Prince's brother smiled down at his paralysed body, the form of his lips mirroring a vicious shark. By the time anybody in the houses had the courage to look out they saw the street completely empty, no trace remained that Hertz or the woman had ever been there. They seemed to have just vanished from the face of the earth.

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Reviews and feedback would be appreciated and any observations of holes would also be greeted with enthusiasm.


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